A big part of this book is the story of the Indivisible movement. We've spent the last few months chatting with group leaders and hearing their stories, but we can’t have one-on-one chats with everybody. If you have a couple minutes, we’d love to hear from you here. We set up a webform to take in your reflections on what Indivisible means to you. Appreciate any stories and thoughts you’d like to share—and we might be able to include what you send us in the book!

Three Top Level Takeaways About the Book

We’re going to try to pass on as much info as possible below, but here are 3 quick takeaways—

We Are Indivisible: A Blueprint for Democracy After Trump.That’s the title, and it’ll be published by Simon & Schuster. We're writing it, and it will include our first-hand experience in the movement, explaining our story, lessons we and Indivisibles have learned over the last two years about how to build and apply power, and what comes next. We want this to be a book that Indivisibles see themselves reflected and their journeys honored in, and we want the book to help grow the movement. We also see this as a moment to talk about where we’re going—which is about advancing an inclusive democracy that doesn’t just take on Trump but also takes on the forces that allowed him to rise.

100% of our proceeds are going to Indivisible’s Save Democracy Fund. This is a new fund we’ve set up to support the movement. The Save Democracy Fund will be used to support an expanded Distributed Fundraising program (including new matches for local groups!) and pro-democracy reform campaigns at the state, federal, and presidential levels. Just to reiterate: none of the proceeds from either the advance or book sales will go to us—we’re directing it all to the movement. So while this isn’t about the money, we hope the book sells like hotcakes! That will just help us grow and fund this work. Pre-orders will be open this week!

Publication in November—one year before the 2020 election.The publication timing is intentional. We’re releasing this ahead of the first presidential primaries, and it’s intended to be relevant both for the election and as we head into the post-Trump era in 2021.

Why an Indivisible Book Now?

Since the original Indivisible Guide came out, we’ve been getting offers from publishers to write a book. We’ve turned all the offers down until now, because we didn’t think that writing a book was the best use of time to serve the strategic interests of the movement. We’ve now reached a point where we think there are important reasons to do a book—because it’s an opportunity to broaden mainstream awareness of Indivisible, our strategy, and our vision, to tell the story of the last two years (because when we don’t, someone else does), and lay out a vision for how to move forward as we move towards a post-Trump era.

With all that in mind, we have three goals for We Are Indivisible

First, we want to help strengthen the sense of shared identity among Indivisibles. Indivisible groups have flourished because of the local, do-it-yourself nature of the movement. Simultaneously, we know that we’re strongest as a national movement if we also continue to build our shared identity as Indivisibles. Writing a book is an act of self-definition and legitimization for the movement. By describing where the movement came from, what we’ve done, how we’ve done it, and what we aspire to do, we can show what makes this movement special, and help people who are already leaders and members feel like part of something bigger.

Second, we want to grow the Indivisible movement. We have several different mediums we use to get the word out about Indivisible—earned media, press releases, emails, social media, SMS, Facebook lives, events, etc. A book is simply an additional medium for getting the word out about Indivisible and recruiting more people into the movement. The book is being published by one of the largest publishers in the world—so this will be a book with significant distribution and reach (one of the main reasons we went with this publisher). If we do it right, the book can be used by existing Indivisibles to recruit new Indivisibles, and it will reach new audiences who aren’t yet part of Indivisible groups.

Third, we want to add Indivisible’s voice to the call for inclusive reforms to democracy. We’ve polled Indivisible group leaders and members, and what you’ve told us is saving American democracy is a top priority for the movement (it is for us too). We see the period we’re in now as a critical moment to make clear that over and above fighting Trump, we’re fighting for a real American democracy. We think this is strategically smart—we’ve got to take on the ways that conservative reactionaries that have rigged the rules to stay in power through racist voting restrictions, dark money, and corruption of our democratic institutions.

After the blue wave election, the movement is transitioning from resisting Trump to resisting the forces that allowed Trump to rise. The book will help fully articulate the rationale for democracy and make the case to the broader public why this is necessary, lending force to the movement’s demand from state, congressional, and potential presidential leaders well ahead of the next elections.

So that’s it for now! We hope you’re as excited as we are about this. We’re looking forward to working together to make this as strong a movement-building tool as possible!

Indivisible.org is a joint website of Indivisible Project and Indivisible Action. Indivisible Project and Indivisible Action are separate organizations.

Indivisible Project is a registered 501(c)(4). Its mission is to cultivate and lift up a grassroots movement of local groups to defeat the Trump agenda, elect progressive leaders, and realize bold progressive policies.

Indivisible Action is a Hybrid Political Action Committee fueled by the grassroots movement to win elections and build local, independent progressive power nationwide.